He slipped back into his room early in the morning. It was only three hours later his alarm went off, summoning him to school. Groaning, he struggled out of bed and down the stairs to face his father again. He knew better than to scarf his food down again, so he picked at it unhappily. His chair slid left and he stared at the floor while his father tried to talk to him. As soon as the bell rang he got down and left the room. Ned McDodd sighed.

You never understand. thought JoJo. He quickly got his backpack and began his walk to school.

Humming a tune he was making up on the spot, JoJo stared at the ground as he twirled the dial on his locker. He pushed his backpack in and stiffened when he felt a presence behind him. Closing the door and whipping around, he came face to face with the school bully, Bruce Whoosley. In fear, JoJo noticed they were alone in the hallway. Looking down, he tried to move past the massive Who, but Bruce blocked his path.

"What's the matter, shrimp? You scared?" Bruce grinned maliciously.

JoJo gulped and took a step backwards.

"Whatcha got there?" Bruce asked, snatching the binder out of JoJo's hand. He made a desperate grab for it but Bruce shoved him against the lockers. JoJo slammed backwards and dropped to the floor from the force. Bruce pulled some sheets of songs out of the binder. Taking a lighter out of his pocket, he lit them on fire. Staring upwards at the bully, JoJo felt a flood of white-hot anger in his chest. He sprung forward as the bully pulled out more fuel out of the binder. Bruce just threw up his arm and JoJo crashed back to the linoleum hallway floor. Just as he pulled out the last piece of paper and ignited it, the first period bell rang and Whos came flooding into the hallway. Bruce just smiled as he pocketed his lighter and sauntered away, dropping the empty binder on JoJo. Standing up shakily, JoJo looked down the hallway. He glimpsed Taryn watching him, but when their eyes met, she turned towards her class.

Was she there the whole time? He wondered. Why didn't she do anything? Kicking aside the small scraps of burnt paper, he headed to his class.

JoJo contemplated going to his sanctuary instead of going straight home like he always did. His parents had 97 children, would they really notice if one was missing for one afternoon? Would they even notice he was gone if he ever ran away? This wasn't the first time that JoJo had this idea, but he reluctantly turned for home. At least he could his escape to his room for a while.

He tossed his bag in the corner and pulled out his empty binder. Staring at it furiously for a moment, he threw it against the wall. He felt like an idiot for not making copies. Frustrated, he kicked the wall, only managing to hurt his foot. Sitting down on his bed, he rubbed his foot tenderly. Sighing, he pulled out some more paper from his bedside table and began to copy down all he could remember.

Dinner was another unproductive attempt at persuading him to become mayor. JoJo collected some more random items, including his sister's hairbrush, an old fishbowl and a cheese grater and went to the observatory. He was there for about ten minutes before he left, too troubled to work. He defiantly didn't want to go home, so he decided to go for a walk on the old roads outside of town.

Nobody used the old roads anymore, because of the newer, more convenient paths in town, so JoJo enjoyed the lack of company. He was even pondering whether to start singing or not. That is, until he heard a voice in the bushes on the side of the dirt path. He crouched defensively. Being bullied your whole life gave you a higher sense of self-preservation. He froze in place, and listened to the voice. It was female, and it sounded oddly familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. She laughed, and to JoJo it sounded like wind singing through the trees. He was debating whether to run or confront the voice.

"…and I'm not sure about that quiet Who. JoJo is just so…" her voice faltered. JoJo was startled to hear his name.

"I don't know. He doesn't believe in himself. Maybe because no one else believes in him. I'm surprised he's not liked more by others. I mean, he is the mayor's son after all. Shouldn't that give him some kind of status?"

He rolled his eyes. If you only knew.

"Maybe not. He doesn't talk much, which I think kind of makes people ignore him. Well, I guess that is a lot of pressure. From what I've seen, he's not the mayor type. But he is one heck of a singer. I saw his "place." He's set up this whole observatory with his instruments he made himself! It's so amazing! He's got potential, he really does. He's just got to have some confidence…and maybe a friend. Like I said, I don't know." When the girl stopped talking, he realized he was hanging on every word, starting to get afraid of whoever knew so much about him. Suddenly the voice started to sing. What took JoJo aback was it was his song. The firefly song. The owner of the voice stood up, and began to sing louder. JoJo gasped, and Taryn abruptly stopped singing and spun around.

"Oh, JoJo! You scared me!" She stepped out of the grass. Uncomfortably she asked, "Did you hear everything I said?"

He nodded and she looked embarrassed, turning red. "Um, well I…I…why do the other Whos pick on you?"

Her question stirred some of the anger he had buried.

"I saw that guy standing over you when the bell rang. Was he beating you up?"

He still said nothing, but he was more humiliated than angry now.

"You're still not going to talk to me, are you?" She looked at him seriously.

JoJo avoided her gaze. She sighed.

"Well sorry to interrupt your walk." she said, heading back towards Whotown. "Seems I'm in everyone's way these days" she muttered under her breath.

JoJo stared at her retreating figure. He wanted to call out to her, but just continued walking.

After getting home late again, collapsing into bed at 3 in the morning, his morning was as pointless as all the other mornings. His dad tried to communicate with him, He ignored him. JoJo felt like screaming "Don't you get it?!?" in his face, but just sat there until my 12 seconds were up. He could feel his dad beginning to lose hope. Good. he thought. Then you won't have to waste twenty-four seconds a day on me.

School was another day of torture as well. JoJo was a bright Who, and managed to get good grades despite not saying a word in class. At lunch, he avoided the bullies as much as possible, sitting in a corner with his food. That day, eating by his lonesome, he saw Taryn move from table to table, being rejected by every one. Apparently judgment had been made. In favour of not cool: the entire school body. Looking around, she looked over in JoJo's direction, but she immediately turned away. JoJo didn't understand this. I would have let her sit here. he thought. She eventually sat down when a group moved away from a table. JoJo felt he should sit with her, but he resumed work on his lyrics.

As much as he wanted to keep working on his instruments, JoJo decided to stay home that night, He was tired, and sneaking out would not help.

A strange thing happened at dinner. When it came time for his turn with his dad, JoJo was stunned to see his dad very absorbed in his food. After about six seconds, he glanced up.

"Oh, hey JoJo." was all he said before returning to his food. JoJo didn't show it, but on the inside he was shocked. Usually his dad was all up in his face, trying to be cool. The bell dinged and JoJo watched as his dad happily greeted his next two daughters, joining in on their hair skipping. JoJo was thrown. Baffled. But, somewhere, he was resentful. If this is your idea of teen psychology, JoJo thought. It's not going to work. He went to bed early, to catch up on his sleep, but ended up lying awake mulling over things. Maybe this meant his Dad would finally get off his back. But was he really going to totally ignore him? Then there was that whole Taryn thing. Did she want to be his friend? Did he want her as a friend? And how in the Who could she read him so well? Exhausted, he fell asleep, but still with no answers. Outside his window, a firefly glowed.